A couple of days ago my Dad randomly asked me if I wanted to go try bike camping this weekend. Of course I said sure, since I love bikes, and enjoy camping. So we decided to try bike camping for the first time. We looked at different options for trails, and I asked the PNW guys for their recomendations. http://www.ridemonkey.com/forums/showthread.php?t=158656 And in the end we decided to ride the South fork of the Skokomish river. We wanted to take our dogs with us and didn't want to ride something on the east side where they would stick there nose into a rattlesnake's business.
We got up friday morning and loaded up the bikes, and finished packing. It was decided that we should take my truck because it is the easiest of our vehicles to steal gas from. Recently my Dad's rig had two windows broken out in an attempt to steal gas and in retaliation when the theives couldn't get any because he only had 1/8th tank anyway.
So to avoid any further broken windows we took the easy to pilfer vehicle. 
The drive out was pleasent, this weekend has great weather. We had a nice drive out along the south shore of Hood Canal and up into the Olympics. We parked up the road aways on the trail side of the river and rode a mile or so down to the trail that cuts into the S. Fork trail at Camp Comfort.
Here we are parked and getting started.
This is what much of the trail is like in between steep hills O'Doom.
These next four shots should be stitched together but I'm too lazy. This is a view of the river from an overlook towards the top of a previously mentioned hill O'Doom
There's a couple of mile gap here where I didn't take any pictures. The sunlight on this section was too much to pass up so we took a break before the top.
This is the view back down the trail from the picture above.
By this time we are both hoping for a place to camp because bike camping is a lot more work than we expected. Neither of us were in good enough shape for this though my Dad had a harder time coming from his desk job. I get out riding a lot more than he does. Riding with a heavy pack on is very hard. It felt like our rolling resistance was incredibly high.
Now this is what I call a rock garden!
This is the area around where we camped. We camped on a sandy patch amongst all the rocks and put some logs to good use for sitting.
Here is a slightly out of focus picture of a cool peak that was visible from where we camped.
Dog #1
Dog #2
This section is where we eat dinner and sleep, etc, etc. The next photos are from Saturday morning and the way out.
Our nifty tent, sitting logs, and bikes.
These three pictures are a waterfall that was by our camp. The pictures go top to bottom. I couldn't get the whole thing because it was surrounded by scrub alder and swampy area, so I had to zoom in between branches for the shots.
These are our bikes. Next time we go there are quite a few equipment changes I need to make to mine. Mine is the yellow one in front. The gold one is my dads. I think next time I will try and get a longer seatpost, a knobby rear tire and put a different freewheel on to make my gearing easier. Right now I'm running worn Arrow Launch on the back, I have 36x18 gearing on a 24" wheel, and my seat is WAY too low. Look at the bikes and compare....now my dad is ~5 inches shorter than me....and my seat is lower than his.
A cool section of trail where it curved into the hillside to cross a stream. (the stream is out of the frame bit to the left)
Finally we are back out to the road. Not to far left to go.
At the road, washed out poser picture of me and my bike, including dog #1
Finally we push up the last hill and are back at the truck. I celebrate by taking a self portrait!
I couldn't resist the nice overlook on the way out of the hills. This is the River quite a ways down from where we were. And of course on nice days like today, the mountain is out...
There was an even better photo of Mt. Rainer in between Belfair and Port Orchard.
My dad and the dogs showing how we roll.
It was a good trip and we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my advice thread and gave us trails to consider. Maybe next time we'll ride Cooper River/Pete Lake.
We got up friday morning and loaded up the bikes, and finished packing. It was decided that we should take my truck because it is the easiest of our vehicles to steal gas from. Recently my Dad's rig had two windows broken out in an attempt to steal gas and in retaliation when the theives couldn't get any because he only had 1/8th tank anyway.
So to avoid any further broken windows we took the easy to pilfer vehicle. The drive out was pleasent, this weekend has great weather. We had a nice drive out along the south shore of Hood Canal and up into the Olympics. We parked up the road aways on the trail side of the river and rode a mile or so down to the trail that cuts into the S. Fork trail at Camp Comfort.
Here we are parked and getting started.
This is what much of the trail is like in between steep hills O'Doom.
These next four shots should be stitched together but I'm too lazy. This is a view of the river from an overlook towards the top of a previously mentioned hill O'Doom
There's a couple of mile gap here where I didn't take any pictures. The sunlight on this section was too much to pass up so we took a break before the top.
This is the view back down the trail from the picture above.
By this time we are both hoping for a place to camp because bike camping is a lot more work than we expected. Neither of us were in good enough shape for this though my Dad had a harder time coming from his desk job. I get out riding a lot more than he does. Riding with a heavy pack on is very hard. It felt like our rolling resistance was incredibly high.
Now this is what I call a rock garden!
This is the area around where we camped. We camped on a sandy patch amongst all the rocks and put some logs to good use for sitting.
Here is a slightly out of focus picture of a cool peak that was visible from where we camped.
Dog #1
Dog #2
This section is where we eat dinner and sleep, etc, etc. The next photos are from Saturday morning and the way out.
Our nifty tent, sitting logs, and bikes.
These three pictures are a waterfall that was by our camp. The pictures go top to bottom. I couldn't get the whole thing because it was surrounded by scrub alder and swampy area, so I had to zoom in between branches for the shots.
These are our bikes. Next time we go there are quite a few equipment changes I need to make to mine. Mine is the yellow one in front. The gold one is my dads. I think next time I will try and get a longer seatpost, a knobby rear tire and put a different freewheel on to make my gearing easier. Right now I'm running worn Arrow Launch on the back, I have 36x18 gearing on a 24" wheel, and my seat is WAY too low. Look at the bikes and compare....now my dad is ~5 inches shorter than me....and my seat is lower than his.
A cool section of trail where it curved into the hillside to cross a stream. (the stream is out of the frame bit to the left)
Finally we are back out to the road. Not to far left to go.
At the road, washed out poser picture of me and my bike, including dog #1
Finally we push up the last hill and are back at the truck. I celebrate by taking a self portrait!
I couldn't resist the nice overlook on the way out of the hills. This is the River quite a ways down from where we were. And of course on nice days like today, the mountain is out...
There was an even better photo of Mt. Rainer in between Belfair and Port Orchard.
My dad and the dogs showing how we roll.
It was a good trip and we had a great time. Thanks to everyone who chimed in on my advice thread and gave us trails to consider. Maybe next time we'll ride Cooper River/Pete Lake.
